Michelin Motorsport will return to the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship for the 2018-19 superseason, ending the monopoly that Dunlop Motorsport had last season.
Larbre Competition and DragonSpeed will are both set to use Michelin rubber this year, while Racing Team Nederland tried tyres from both manufacturers during the pre-season test at Motorland Aragon, with a final decision still to be made.
TDS Racing and Signatech Alpine are set to remain with Dunlop, as are Jackie Chan DC Racing, while there are likely to be fifteen representatives from the British tyre manufacturer for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, compared to the five from Michelin.
With tyre competition returning, it further opens up the LMP2 category, thanks to both Dallara and Ligier providing competition in the chassis department to Oreca, who fielded all ten of the entries in the class in 2017.
“This year will be more interesting because we have three [chassis] manufacturers, Ligier, Dallara and Oreca, and Michelin returns to the category,” said Dunlop Motorsport sales manager Mathias Kipp to Motorsport.com.
“I think that from a business point of view and how many cars we have [four], we are a bit disappointed. But we can now compare ourselves with Michelin.
“Our teams are happy and see clear improvements, and it is clear that the tyres will be faster than last year.”
